Earth - Weather Topics

The sled dogs of California's Eastern Sierra are unhappy. Why? A persistent La Nina condition in the Pacific has left the mountain range with less than its usual supply of snow. As data continue to flow in from Earth orbit, NASA scientists are working to understand how El Nino and La Nina affect our global climate.

NASA scientists are studying a type of radar that uses laser light instead of microwaves to provide snapshots of the winds that travel the globe. Knowing the wind's speed and direction over large areas could help meteorologists answer the riddle of tomorrow's weather and benefit many areas of the world's economy.

Scientists are working to understand why the lower atmosphere isn't heating up as fast as some global warming models predict. The atmosphere appears to be more complex than computer simulations that researchers use to understand our planet's climate.

If you thought the sun was an unwavering beacon, you're wrong. An experiment called SOLCON on board shuttle mission STS-107 is monitoring the sun's brightness high above Earth's cloudy atmosphere. Researchers say it's crucial data for studies of climate change.